Previous Webinars

Webinar online learning opportunities are offered by the national office of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Each webinar is free and made possible through generous gifts to Presbyterians Sharing. Click on the sign to see the handouts and recordings of PCC webinars on Leading with Care, Stewardship and Leadership & Renewal.

Handouts:

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Stewardship

Description:
This webinar, led by Karen Plater (Associate Secretary, Stewardship & Planned Giving) will provide practical language for presenting financial updates to your congregation. It will look at how to move from challenge-based language to compassion-based invitations to give.

Handouts

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Description:
This webinar will talk about ways to encourage people to leave a legacy for the church. It will introduce the impact legacy gifts can have and ways the congregation can encourage them. It will introduce the online workbook, which can help congregations establish policies and procedures for legacy and endowment gifts so they are ready to receive the gifts when they are given.

Handouts

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Description:
This webinar will examine tools congregations can use to introduce online giving and giving apps at their congregation. Why is it important? You will learn practical ways to implement online giving and ideas to promote it.

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Description:
This webinar will provide helpful hints on how to present the budget to the congregation in a way that shares what the congregation is accomplishing in mission and ministry. Plus, you’ll learn creative ideas on how to tell the story and help people see and experience the impact their gifts are having.

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Description:
Your congregation’s stewardship numbers tell as story. Knowing that story can help you plan your next steps. This webinar will introduce you to the Generosity Assessment—a tool that helps congregations talk about money by looking at congregational giving and culture. An important part of church health is to nurture communities of joyful generosity and to help congregations talk about money and giving. Understanding the theology of abundance is crucial in avoiding ‘scarcity/fear’ mode in church culture.

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Description:
This webinar will introduce Lori Guenther Reesor’s research about giving patterns in congregations, generosity as an important part of church health and provide an intro to ideas of how to nurture communities of joyful generosity and to help congregations talk about money and giving. You will learn about the role of a theology of abundance in helping avoid the “scarcity/fear” mode in church culture. Plus, you will learn about the Generosity Assessment Tool, inviting congregations interested in piloting a generosity assessment for their congregation to sign up to pilot it.

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Leadership & Renewal

Description:
Many sessions are maintenance oriented rather than leadership oriented. What makes the leadership session different from the maintenance session? Why is it important today to shift into more of a leadership orientation? This webinar would provide an overview of the main tasks of leadership. They will be presented as a sequence of steps (in other words, outlining a leadership process) that will help elders see how to move from discovering and assessing issues through faithful reflection, direction setting and planning. You could call this “Leadership 101.”

Handouts:

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Facilitator: The Rev. Dr. Ross Lockhart, Associate Professor and Director, The Centre for Missional Leadership and Director of Presbyterian Formation at VSTHosts: Canadian Ministries

Description:
If your church were gone tomorrow, would those in your neighbourhood feel the loss?

Despite the second part of Jesus’ greatest commandment, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31), many congregations have little sense of who their neighbours are and how their churches could serve them. One of the best things you can do to reinvigorate the mission and ministry of your church is to learn about your neighbourhood. In this webinar, you will be given tools to learn about who your neighbours are and what they need, discern how God is calling your congregation to respond to those needs, and develop an action plan for your response.

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Train your own trainers to have experts in accessibility in your church

Fully involve members with disabilities in your community activities

Develop accessible communication in your community outreach

The workshop is being offered by Our Doors are Open. This is a project of the Inclusive Design Research Centre at the Ontario College of Art and Design; the project offers diverse faith-communities in Ontario simple and creative ideas to help increase inclusion and accessibility for people with disabilities in worship services, events and all communal activities, and offers free training seminars and services to all Ontario faith communities. Specifically, the webinar will discuss, offer context for, and demonstrate the concepts of welcoming and inclusive thinking. As participants make use of Our Doors are Open’s Brief Accessibility Checklist, this webinar will also help participants to “get organized” by forming accessibility committees in their various congregations, identifying three different kinds of barriers in their own contexts, and creating short- and long-term organizational plans to make space for greater communal accessibility. Lastly, the webinar contains strategies to help participants create greater accessibility in terms of the active participation of people with disabilities in faith communities, communications (alternative and accessible forms of media), and physical buildings or facilities.

Description:
At a time when many mainline Protestant churches are struggling, there are some that are thriving and growing. Looking at thriving churches from the outside, it is easy to assume that they may have just gotten lucky or had more favourable circumstances than other churches. In fact, church growth is usually the result of intentional visioning, planning and executing on the part of the congregation and its leaders. In this webinar, you will learn from two churches about the steps they took to transform their congregations from near-death to new-life. It isn’t nearly as daunting as you may think, so sign up today to hear about how it is done!

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If you feel like your congregation is being called to do something different in ministry or mission but don’t know where to begin, you aren’t alone. Facing change, whether chosen and welcomed or required by necessity, is never easy. In this practical webinar, you will learn how to facilitate a collective process of discernment, which will provide your congregation with opportunities to intentionally listen for God’s voice and make decisions about the future together. You will be given ready-to-use discernment tools as well as tips on finding the necessary support within and without the congregation, teaching your congregation to trust God in the process, and how and when to start.

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No matter where your church is on the church lifecycle, God is with you there. In this webinar, you will learn how to find joy and meaning where you are at while also looking towards where God might want you to be. Topics to be covered include: celebrating and building your strengths at any stage, letting go of what is past and looking to the future, dying with dignity as a church, and moving from death to rebirth.